100 best New York restaurants: Steakhouses

Photograph: Courtesy Keens100 best New York restaurants: Keens Steakhouse

Some of the best New York restaurants are steakhouses: Old-world chophouses, nouveau grills and other meatcentric spots where you can tuck a napkin beneath your chin and have at it with a serrated blade. In fact, few meals feel more quintessentially New York than a juicy slab of beef, served with creamed spinach and a fine dram of whiskey. Here are our favorite steakhouses in New York, from classics that peddle in porterhouse behemoths, to new-wave meateries where you can get your sirloin or rib eye with a side of unorthodox gnocchi.

Grilling may be the ultimate American art form, but New York restaurants rarely explore its greaseless, flame-licked potential. With St. Anselm, Joe Carroll delivers one of the city’s most impressive exceptions. The well-rounded menu, heavy on veggies, combines Mediterranean, Asian and all-American flavors, but head chef Yvon de Tassigny uses the simple cooking method to tie it all together—from smoky slabs of halloumi to miniature fire-roasted eggplants with fried goat cheese and honey. Main-event proteins include a charred hanger packed with earthy flavor, and super-succulent sweet-tea–brined chicken served whole. De Tassigny stumbles when it comes to the amateur-hour desserts, but he sure is an ace on the grill, adding wood chips like seasoning and moderating heat so the sear is always right for the job.

The ceiling and walls are hung with pipes, some from such long-ago Keens regulars as Babe Ruth, J.P. Morgan and Teddy Roosevelt. Even in these nonsmoking days, you can catch a whiff of the restaurant’s 120-plus years of history. Beveled-glass doors, two working fireplaces and a forest’s worth of dark wood suggest a time when “Diamond Jim” Brady piled his table with bushels of oysters, slabs of seared beef and troughs of ale. The menu still lists a three-inch-thick mutton chop (imagine a saddle of lamb but with more punch) and desserts such as key lime pie. Sirloin and porterhouse (for two or three) hold their own against any steak in the city.

Although a slew of Luger copycats have prospered in the last several years, none have captured the elusive charm of this stucco walled, beer-hall style eatery, with well-worn wooden floors and tables, and waiters in waist coats and bow ties. Excess is the thing, be it the reasonably health- conscious tomato salad (thick slices of tomato and onion with an odd addition of steak sauce), the famous porterhouse for two, 44 ounces of sliced prime beef, or the decent apple strudel, which comes with a bowl full of schlag. Go for it all—it’s a singular New York experience that’s worth having.

The Germanish sibling of beloved trattoria Frankie’s Spuntino bears all of the hallmarks of a hot spot, with a salvage-lot look, artisan cocktails and locavore sourcing. Meat is the restaurant’s marquee draw—the dry-aged Creekstone Farms steaks have great, funky flavor and a beautiful char. The only fish option, butter-drenched filleted trout, is also expertly cooked; and wild mushrooms tossed with delicious buttery spaetzle is a must-order side dish. Though you’ll find this sort of honest fare elsewhere in NYC, rarely will you find it as solidly executed or as reasonably priced.